Sepp Blatter to remain in hospital after ‘small emotional breakdown’

Sepp Blatter was admitted to hospital after suffering an “emotional breakdown” following the criminal and ethics action opened against him, it emerged on Wednesday.

FIFA president Sepp Blatter gestures during a press conference at the football’s world body headquarter’s on July 20, 2015 in Zurich. FIFA said today that a special election will be held on February 26 to replace president Sepp Blatter. AFP PHOTO / FABRICE COFFRINIFABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images

Blatter, the suspended Fifa president, admitted to hospital in Zurich on Friday for checks on what was ­described initially as “stress” but is now expected to keep him under medical supervision until Monday. Sources close to the Swiss, 79, said that he had suffered a “small emotional breakdown”.

His adviser, Klaus Stoehlker, said: “He is in hospital but he has just been told to ­relax for a few days and he will be back to work on Tuesday. His most important message is that he is fully preparing himself to go ahead with his fight against his 90-day suspension.”

Stoehlker ­added that Blatter said he had no ­involvement in the scandal to have engulfed Germany’s 2006 World Cup bid, which has led to the resignation of its football association president, Wolfgang Niersbach.

Germany’s bid leaders, including Niersbach and Franz Beckenbauer, have been accused of using €6.7 million (£4.73 million) to set up a slush fund to buy votes. They have denied any wrongdoing as did yesterday the disgraced former Fifa vice-president Jack Warner following the emergence of a document appearing to link him with the scandal.

“I have never, ever had any agreement of any kind with anyone on Germany’s hosting of the 2006 World Cup,” Warner wrote in an email to German broadcaster Sport 1. “I have said a thousand times that I have no intention of talking or writing to anyone about my 30 years sojourn in the Fifa. Nor do I have no intention [sic] of joining the international media circus whose only objective seems to be demean and denigrate.”

Franz Beckenbauer denies wrongdoing in the 2006 World Cup bid

It has been claimed that Warner had an account called ‘LOC [Local Organising Committee] Germany 2006 Limited’, while the German FA (DFB) confirmed reports of a draft agreement with Warner, signed in part by Beckenbauer, who was chairman of the 2006 World Cup organising committee. The draft contract is said to have offered a lucrative friendly against Germany, but no cash. It remains unclear whether the document was used.

Another former Fifa vice-president, Eugenio Figueredo, agreed yesterday to be extradited from Switzerland to his native Uruguay to face corruption charges.

The Swiss Federal Office of Justice had approved Figueredo’s extradition to the United States in September, something against which he appealed, although he could still be forced to travel there.

Figueredo is accused of having taken bribes worth millions in connection with the award of broadcast rights.